More than you ever wanted to hear from Jenny Crusie

Sherlock

I get a little giddy when I talk about this episode. I’m a story wonk, so when I find a narrative this so-close-to-perfect-I’m-gonna-call-it-perfect, I tend to squee. The first time I saw this, I sat there at the end, knowing that last scene wouldn’t have happened, couldn’t logically have happened, and not caring because I was so damn glad it had happened. Then I hit play again and watched it all over again from the beginning. About a week later, I made Lani and Krissie watch it. When it was over, they just sat there, and I said, “Maybe I oversold this.” And then they both said, “Play it again.” It’s just that damn good. And one of the things that makes it so damn good is the brilliant use of metaphor and motif, so that’s what I’m going to talk about next Sunday. One thing . . . Amazon says the DVD for the first episode of season three isn’t going to be released until Feb. 11. If we can’t get it streaming online before then, I’m not going to be much help discussing them (no cable). I assumed if PBS was showing them on the 19th, Amazon, Netflix and the rest would stream shortly thereafter, but it’s looking like I’m wrong. If so, we’ll, uh, figure something out. Any ideas?

As great antagonists go, Moriarty is right up there with Nemesis, almost as much a legend as Sherlock Holmes. What’s really interesting about Gatiss’s interpretation of him is that he’s the perfect doppelgänger antagonist. Continue reading →

Since we’re starting our Sherlock Binge Watch with “A Study in Pink,” the first episode of the Sherlock series, let’s talk about beginnings.

The beginning of your story is a promise you make to the reader. That means everything in that first scene, especially everything on the first page, sets up all of the rest of the story. Continue reading →

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About the Author

Jennifer Crusie is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author of twenty novels, one book of literary criticism, miscellaneous articles, essays, novellas, and short stories, and the editor of three essay anthologies. She lives in a cottage in New Jersey surrounded by deer, bears, foxes, and dachshunds, where she often stares at the ceiling and counts her blessings.